Sailors on Safarihttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa
Rob and Dee Overland in Africa 2014 - 10,000 miles - 4 months - 10 countriesThu, 04 Sep 2014 15:44:20 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.466556639Driving in Africahttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/driving-africa/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/driving-africa/#commentsThu, 04 Sep 2014 15:44:20 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=418We realize that there are many folks out there reading our blog to assist them in planning their own trips- with that in mind I have prepared a series of posts with the type of nitty-gritty detail that will help others intent on their own adventures. I have placed this series under the pre departure […]

]]>We realize that there are many folks out there reading our blog to assist them in planning their own trips- with that in mind I have prepared a series of posts with the type of nitty-gritty detail that will help others intent on their own adventures. I have placed this series under the pre departure or preperation tab on our website.

Driving in Southern Africa

First off I have to say that doing our own self-drive safari was fantastic. In one or two places we did commercial safari drives like 95% of the foreign tourists do and there is no comparison to the type of experience you have. Self-drive was for us a far better experience. A good guide will likely spot the game from farther away and will undoubtedly see one or two things you miss, but you will see plenty on your own and the experience of sitting 15 feet from a lion with no one else around is awesome. If you are serious about taking pictures as I was, being able to stop EXACTLY where you can frame your shot properly makes all the difference between snapshots and quality photographs.

Best advice- don’t plan on driving too far each day. 350 -500 kilometers a day on average is great. And as you will read everywhere- NEVER DRIVE AT NIGHT IN AFRICA. There are black people in dark clothes walking everywhere all the time. DON’T DRIVE AT NIGHT.

The actual speed you drive will be dependent on several things- mostly how good your eyesight is and how tall you are- REALLY. On many roads there are potholes that will destroy your vehicle – I found that given my mediocre eyesight and short stature if I went no faster than 100 kph I could see a pothole ahead and swerve or slam on the brakes fast enough to avoid destroying my front end. You also need nerves of steel, and good spatial judgment.

Many of the roads are barely wide enough for two trucks to pass each other and there is no shoulder at all. A typical driving moment will be looking ahead and seeing a truck doing 120 kph coming at you slightly in your lane, a bicycle going your way at 15 kph and two ladies just ahead walking with water jugs on their head. You have about a millisecond to determine whether you can swerve around the ladies walking, then cut back into your lane before the huge pothole ahead, then decide if you need to speed up or slow down to not pass the truck at the same spot in the road where you will encounter the bicycle.

In many countries you may pass 20 or 30 people walking per kilometer and not see another vehicle for half an hour. Potholes will always keep you on your toes. Even if you have not seen another vehicle for half an hour it is critical to continually check your rear view mirror. On one lonely road where I had not seen a car for 45 minutes I started to swerve into the other lane to avoid a pothole and at that exact moment another car that I had not noticed was starting to pass me. We nearly collided- and it would have been my fault.

In Tanzania the roads are really atrocious. The asphalt is sometimes only three inches thick and the trucks are so overloaded that they sink into the asphalt. On the hills they sink in the worst and the road from Tunduma to Dar es Salam is so bad that your tires are riding in deep grooves like mini toboggan runs. The ridge between the two grooves may be six inches higher so changing lanes or diving off the road when the oncoming buses take your lane is very hazardous.

Breakdowns and wrecks are everywhere. It is not uncommon to see a truck broken down on the road with the crew camped out for days awaiting parts or alternatively seeing them rebuilding entire engines or transmissions right on the road where it died. On our last day in Tanzania we counted 10 wrecked semi tractor-trailers. Ten, in one 200-kilometer stretch of road! These were entire trucks tipped over on their sides or rolled completely onto their backs and looking like a dog with its paws in the air. One was still smoking as we passed it, another had a load of clothes and there were dozens of people gathering up clothes and trying them on right on the road. Another had come down a hill and at the bottom of the hill was a huge pot hole across two thirds of the road. Just past the pothole was a curve and the truck either swerved to miss the pothole or hit the pothole and lost control and rolled completely over as he hit the curve.

Despite the carnage you will see everywhere, in general African drivers are quite good. Specifically they are good at judging clearance on their narrow roads. In the US if two drivers approach each other on a narrow road both usually slow down, but in Africa they will often pass within inches at 120 kph never letting their foot off the gas. In cities they may follow another car separated by only a foot or two.

African drivers in many countries are blessed with X-ray vision. This is clear from the fact that they will often pass on a completely blind curve. You see this more often in Tanzania and other Muslim countries where they believe in “inshalla” or the concept of “God (Allah) willing”. If it is your day to die you die and if it is not your day to die you don’t die- it is up to Allah, not you, so passing or not passing on a curve has little to do with it.

In Africa you will usually see the bicyclists leap off of their bikes and dive off of the road as soon as they hear you coming- I always thought this strange – did they think I would run them over if they did not get completely off the road? The answer is YES. In Africa size equals right of way. The trucks and busses would definitely not swerve, slow down, brake or take any other evasive action- it is incumbent on the bicyclist to get out of the way. This is nowhere more evident than in Tanzania.

In our first few hours in Tanzania I was run completely off the road three times. Usually you will see a truck coming your way and then a bus will pull out from behind the truck. The bus will see you and flash his lights- this is a signal that he is taking your lane and you better get out of the way. They think this is nothing unusual. The bus is bigger and he now owns your lane. All three times this happened to us on our first day I was forced to slam on my brakes and dive off of the road into the ditch. As the roadbeds are usually raised with no shoulder this meant driving off about a one foot drop into the ditch and getting completely off the pavement- the alternative was a head on collision with a bus doing 100 kph. I do not use the term “run off the road” in a figurative sense- if you do not exit the pavement you will likely be killed. In one of these instances I had to use four-wheel drive to get back onto the road.

In almost every country there are a number of hand signals that you will see and you might want to ask local drivers what they mean.

One common signal is that as you come up on a car or truck in-front of you moving slowly he will signal with his left turn signal. In Tanzania and Zambia this means you are clear to pass, him and there is no traffic ahead. Unfortunately, in So. Africa they use the right turn signal to mean the same thing- this is confusing as if a truck were planning on a right turn to a side road he would also use his right signal- in which case that means don’t pass. I found it best to only pass when I personally could see ahead rather than trust the trucks signal.

One signal I never did figure out was often when approaching a vehicle of a similar size going the opposite direction they would put on their left turn signal. As if to say I may be taking part of your lane so move over. I think the first one to signal has the right of way- but about this one I am unsure.

A few other tips:

Speed bumps are everywhere and often unpainted. They are large enough to wreck your front end. Make sure you get in the habit of looking for the signs indicating speed bumps or rumble strips and slow down well in advance. Many places have two sets of rumble strips that will jar your teeth loose if you go over them too fast, then these are followed by serious speed bumps, then you go through town slowly and at the other end of the town you may encounter two more speed bumps and two more sets of rumble strips.

In many countries you are required to carry small red triangles to put in the road if you are broken down to warn drivers coming towards you to slow down. You may also be required to have yellow traffic vests to wear if you are stopped on the side of the road. Other items are fire extinguishers, yellow triangle decals on your bonnet (hood) and tailgate or boot (trunk).

In Zimbabwe there are police checkpoints every 30 or 50 kilometers. They may ask to see your driver’s license or check your brake lights, triangles, vests, fire extinguishers, etc.

If you see a bunch of recently cut tree branches on the edge of the road this is a signal that a truck is broken down ahead of you and you had better slow down.

Speed Traps

Speed traps are very common – especially in Tanzania where you may see one every 50 kilometers or more especially on the road from Tunduma to Iringa. As you approach a speed trap the drivers going the opposite direction will likely be flashing their lights at you to catch your attention, this may be followed by a hand signal with a downward motion signaling you to slow down, or some of them may extend their arm out the window and rub their thumb and forefinger together indicating cops wanting money.

If you are not VERY careful you could spend a fortune getting nailed at a dozen speed traps in a single day.

Here are a few suggestions:

If you are entering a town and the trucks which normally go like a bat out of hell are suddenly going slowly – DO NOT PASS THEM- there is a speed trap just ahead.

If a combi (mini-bus) driver signals you with flashing lights or the hand signals mentioned above- just slow down and be patient. If you slow to 30 kph for five or six kilometers just about the time you get really impatient and speed up again is where the speed trap will be.

The speed traps are just that – traps. None are on the open highway as in the US, they are all where the speed drops from 100 or 120 kph to 30 or 40 kph for a village or planned village or something similar. In a day of driving you may hit 50 villages where the speed drops from 120 to 30 kph, but it is the village where the 30 kph sign is barely visible behind a tree that the cops use for the speed trap. If you see the 30 or 40 kph sign it will not be enough to remove your foot from the gas and coast yourself down to 40 – by then you will be past the sign. Rather you will need to brake very aggressively to get down to 40 by the time you reach the sign.

You may need to crawl along at 30 or 40 kph for a long time and even when you get back into open country, wait until you see the end 30 kph sign before resuming your normal speed. The end 30 sign is a 30 with a slant line through it. If you slow down in time and drive slowly for the length of the spread out village and then get back into open country and think, “OK I can now speed up there is nothing around me”- don’t speed up yet. There is likely a speed trap just around the bend—wait until you see the end 30 sign.

Despite these warnings you will likely get stopped. The police honcho will be sitting on his ass in a chair under a tree with a radar gun and his underling will walk into the road , stand on the center line and flag you down. Arguing will get you nowhere, their only purpose is to collect money. We heard that some of the police buy their own radar guns and receipt books. They always offer you a receipt so I think this is probably true. I was stopped a number of times and at first I paid the fines which ranged from $10- $35. Finally I got tired of it. I honestly don’t know if I was guilty of speeding or not but I decided I was not paying any more, especially when I saw locals or combi or truck drivers going faster than I was pass on by. After that I pulled over where indicated. When the cop approached my window I simply told them I was not paying and drove away. The first time I did I had been stopped by a woman police officer who told me I was still doing 100 kph when I passed the 30 kph sign. The fine would be over $130 US. I told her I was not paying it and to have a nice day. I had no idea what to expect as I drove away- would she be drawing a pistol and steadying her two handed grip to blow out my tires? Was she sprinting to her car to give chase or radioing ahead for a roadblock? What I saw was comical- I watched as her mouth dropped open and her shoulders slumped forwards in disappointment. She was crushed. I’m sure she already had a new dress picked out with the fee she was going to charge me.

After that I did the same thing several times. At one place by a dam I was stopped by a military guy who struggled to invent an infraction of which I was guilty. After he came up with an imaginary breach of the law, I told him it was Saturday and I never paid bribes on Saturday, then I walked back to my truck and drove away.

Later I heard a number of clever methods other overland drivers had used to avoid being taken.

In Mozambique bribes are a way of life, but in other countries they are trying to crack down on them and gently threatening the cops that you are going to report them sometimes makes them back off.

One guy had his wife start crying and the cop got so worried he let them go. Another started stuttering and mumbling in his foreign language and was let go.

Spells and curses are still a big part of Africa-less so with educated people like cops but still a part of life. One guy kept pointing his finger at the cops and muttering incantations in his native language while he rolled his eyes in his head- the cop beat a hasty retreat.

Someone suggested making a bunch of fake copies of US $20 bills and telling the cops you can only pay them in US dollars then giving them the counterfeit money. Pretty funny but don’t make them good enough that the US treasury would think you were really trying to counterfeit.

The best one we heard was a guy who had an official looking form that he said was from his home country and his country REQUIRED him to report any violations he got overseas. The form had to be signed by the African officer and a picture taken. Needless to say none of the local cops were willing to sign his form and all of them thought a warning would be sufficient.

]]>http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/driving-africa/feed/1418Money Changershttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/money-changers/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/money-changers/#respondThu, 04 Sep 2014 15:36:40 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=414We realize that there are many folks out there reading our blog to assist them in planning their own trips- with that in mind I have prepared a series of posts with the type of nitty-gritty detail that will help others intent on their own adventures. I have placed this series under the pre departure […]

]]>We realize that there are many folks out there reading our blog to assist them in planning their own trips- with that in mind I have prepared a series of posts with the type of nitty-gritty detail that will help others intent on their own adventures. I have placed this series under the pre departure or preperation tab on our website.

Money Changers

As noted elsewhere it is best to only change money at actual foreign exchange businesses or official banks or in some countries at the post office. If the post office does do foreign exchange the line there is sure to be shorter than the banks. Your life will be ever so much easier if you get money for the next country long BEFORE you get to the border. Dealing with money changers is always a risk. If you get stuck and must change money at the border at least know what the bank rate is- you won’t get that, but you might get close, and only change what you will need for border fees and until you get to an ATM.

Keep in mind in some countries a city large enough to have an ATM may be several days away and once away from the border you are unlikely to find other moneychangers.

If you have to change money with a money changer at the border do this with your border “helper’s assistance.”

The money changers you see hanging around borders and especially outside banks in cities are usually crooks. THEY DO NOT MAKE THEIR MONEY ON THE EXCHANGE RATE—THEY MAKE IT BY STEALING FROM YOU DURING THE TRANSACTION.

The have a number of typical cons. The simplest one is they simply run away down some back alley with your cash. Most other cons rely on sleight of hand and short changing you.

These guys may offer you a better than bank rate- their goal is to initiate a deal- the rate they quote is immaterial. Once the deal is underway they will distract you change the rate, have their friends jump in and start yelling the rate was something else or any of a number of cons. One favorite con is they give you the new currency. Then you give them the old currency – the guy counts both out in front of you and is holding the money you just gave him in his hand. Then he says you did not give him enough. He will then say the deal is off and he wants his money back. You give his money back and he gives you yours back—EXECPT HE HAS PALMED SOME OF YOUR MONEY EVEN THOUGH YOU WATCHED HIM COUNT IT IN FRONT OF YOU.

If you must change money with a moneychanger here are some tips.

Put the exact amount of money you want to change in your right pocket. Ask how much he will give you for that amount- know in advance what you will accept. Do not do the math in your head in-front of him while being pressured, especially with all the zeros in African currency it is easy to get confused. If he has friends with him make them all go away or insist he walk away with you and they do not follow. If possible have your companions next to you to observe all of this and support you. Make the transaction brief and you control the entire deal. Make him count his money into your hand first. After he counts it you recount it without him touching it. Stick it in your left pocket. Agree again at this point on what you are paying him. If the amount has suddenly changed give him back his money and WALK AWAY. If not proceed. Now, having agreed on the amount you are to pay him, reach into your right pocket count out the money you have already pre-counted yourself. Watch him count it. WALK AWAY.

Walking away is the critical element, because at that point is when he or his friends will try to distract you or change the deal or get in an argument. Most of these guys are cowards who rely on sleight of hand – they are not violent crooks. Few will do anything when you just walk away.

]]>http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/money-changers/feed/0414African Border Crossingshttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/african-border-crossings/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/african-border-crossings/#commentsThu, 04 Sep 2014 15:29:01 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=412We realize that there are many folks out there reading our blog to assist them in planning their own trips- with that in mind I have prepared a series of posts with the type of nitty-gritty detail that will help others intent on their own adventures. I have placed this series under the pre departure […]

]]>We realize that there are many folks out there reading our blog to assist them in planning their own trips- with that in mind I have prepared a series of posts with the type of nitty-gritty detail that will help others intent on their own adventures. I have placed this series under the pre departure or preperation tab on our website.

Rob

Border Crossings

Border crossings on the roads of Africa are rumored to be nightmares of bureaucracy and bribes. While I won’t completely contradict that notion I will say that on our recent trip we made over a dozen border crossings and while most were not fast we never had any serious hassles, never got more than a cursory look inside the vehicle and the only bribe we paid were two warm cans of Coke which I offered freely.

Disclaimer: My wife and I previously made travel films for a living and routinely crossed borders with a dozen heavy cases of camera equipment. We also sailed around the world on a 40-foot sailboat and have visited over 100 countries. In all we’ve been through several hundred immigration and customs interactions-so we are not new at this. As with any endeavor experience helps. What follows are my tried and true methods, which have worked both in Africa and throughout the world.

If possible get some of the currency of the new country you will be visiting at a bank or exchange office in a large city before you head for the border.

When you pull up to the border there will likely be a very long line of trucks- just pass this line and head for the border – you will probably be waved forward by a horde of “helpers” anxious to navigate you through the system. They will wave you past the trucks to the front of the line and indicate where you can park.

Take your time- be confident, unhurried and in control. Park where indicated. Exit your vehicle and lock everything. At this point you will have a dozen men screaming in your face about what you should do. I calmly and quietly pick the most sedate, soft-spoken, polite and nicely dressed guy. If he has any kind of laminated badge so much the better. I then tell him he is our guy and I tell the others that I am working with this guy and to go away.

This usually ends the mass chaos except for one or two moneychangers who may hang around- more about them in a minute.

Next I ask the guy I have chosen his name – if he has a laminated badge or card, which some of the legit agents do, I get the info from it. The next step is critical – I pull out my phone and tell him I want his picture, which I then take. I even push a few buttons as if I am emailing it. He now knows that I have his name and his likeness and he could be identified.

I have never had any of these guys try to run off with my passport or paperwork, but I think knowing that I have their picture does tend to keep them on their best behavior.

I also have never had any of these helpers ask for money up-front or even had them discuss the cost of their services, though other travelers report being quoted fees of $50 or more at this point. In Africa where decent wages are $ 5-$10 a day and they spend maybe an hour with you I pay accordingly. But I never pay anything until I am through with the entire process and on my way out the final gate.

Once I have chosen my guy I trust him- but I do stay as close as possible. In dealing with the helpers I am always polite, firm, calm and completely in control. I never argue or debate with them- especially about paying them. While I follow them from building to building and office to office and take their advice I remain in control and close to everything. I do not let them go off anywhere out of my sight and I do not do or permit anything I am the least bit uncomfortable with.

When you go inside the immigration building take with you your passports and all your automobile papers, as well as a stack of passport photos and a stack of copies of your passport photo page and your driver’s license. Copies of your vehicle registration can be handy too. To speed things up when filling out the inevitable forms have a blue or black pen for EACH person in your group.

Usually your helper will navigate you to the front of the line and get you the forms you need. Sometimes there will be a scruffily dressed guy who hands you a form and expects you to pay him- ignore them and just pick up your own form off the counter.

The procedure is first go to immigration, then customs, then any road fees, then customs inspection, then 3rd party insurance, then exit the border post.

Before you go inside, a word about who you are about to deal with. In your country customs officers may be minor functionaries- in these countries they are bigwigs with government jobs. Take off your hat and sunglasses, speak politely, give them some respect. Don’t get huffy or be in a hurry.

Most Africans are flattered you are visiting their country. I always start with a genuine and disarming smile. I tell them I have come all the way from America and am very excited to be visiting their country. This usually results in a thumbs up gesture and they say “Obama.”- to which I respond with words on how much I like him, which I do. (They assume most whites are So. African, so if you are other than from RSA mentioning it may get you a bit more co-operation).

Depending on your country’s relations with the country you are visiting you may only need a passport stamp- this is usually easier than a visa. Some places will require you to get a visa in advance at a consulate but many will issue them at the border- make sure you’ve checked before hand. The other information that is valuable to know beforehand is exactly what each country requires for vehicle importation. Lonely Planet is a good source of this info as is the country’s own website.

Immigration will often ask you how long you intend to stay- get longer than you have planned just in case you have a breakdown or love the place or whatever.

Make sure you check the date they stamp in your passport.

If you need a visa (or sometimes just for a stamp) you may need to fill out some immigration paperwork, then take the immigration form to a payment window, then take the payment receipt back to the immigration guy to get your stamp or visa.

Visas are official paper seals that they glue into your passport. Many of them take up a full page of your passport. Make sure before your trip you have lots of pages available.

Then customs paperwork on the vehicle is usually next. Make sure your paperwork shows the weight of your vehicle and even if it is a truck stress that it is a passenger vehicle not a commercial truck. At one border crossing we watched the people next to us in the same size baakie as we were pay a fee of over $150 unnecessarily. Their helper guided them to the window to pay this fee, while my wife asked a supervisor if it was required of us and was told “NO.” We got the supervisor’s name and after that we had to assure several other bureaucrats at that border post that supervisor so and so had said we did not need that extra permit which only applied to heavier trucks.

Most countries have some fees for a “TIP- or Temporary Import Permit.

At most of these windows things will go faster if you hand your paperwork and money to your helper- I do this but I always stand pretty close.

We bought a So. African registered vehicle and went as far north as Tanzania without needing a carnet. Tanzania did ask for it and we had to spend some time getting an additional piece of paper and show that we had traveled through all those other countries enroute without one, but eventually we got what we needed and were on our way. I believe you can also get into Kenya without a carnet but you will need one north of there.

Some countries will have miscellaneous road taxes and fees and in others they will want to physically see the VIN number on your vehicle. Know in advance where the VIN plate is on your vehicle and to be helpful have another piece of paper you can hand to the inspector so he can just quickly verify the numbers match without having to really read them off the plate itself. Copies of your registration showing the VIN, Engine number, license registration, driver’s license, etc, can also be handy.

The customs inspection is usually the next hurdle after your customs paperwork and road taxes etc. Be polite, open what they ask- keep in mind they really do not want the headache of searching your vehicle. Don’t be in a hurry, show you have nothing to hide. We never had more than a cursory look inside. Often they will ask for a bribe, which we usually politely declined to give. Your inspection will go quicker if the things on top of your load that they can see are nothing that they are personally interested in.

In Tanzania when they were still deciding if we could enter without a carnet, the big boss came outside to look at our truck. He noticed we had a 6 pack of Coke so I gave him one quickly- I gave it as a gift while we chatted amiably, rather than as a bribe under coercion. He was then my friend, and once the big boss had decided we were OK, all the other paperwork fell into place speedily and we were on our way.

Often the last stop will be the 3rd party insurance. In many countries you can avoid the individual country’s 3rd party insurance by having a COMESA insurance policy which covers a number of countries, but we did not have this.

The insurance vendors are usually set up in shacks next to the border. Your helper will do this for you and often you will find that your helper was waiting for this moment as he gets a commission here. Our first few border crossings we went from one insurance shack to the next competitively shopping but we found they were all exactly the same and thereafter we just trusted our helper and went where he suggested. In all cases the prices were what we had read online or elsewhere. Usually the insurance results in them applying a sticker to the windshield and then you are good to go.

Your last bit is just the guard who monitors the boom gate to let you out of the border. He may check your papers or have you sign a book and note your car registration.

Do not pay your helper until you are through this last stop and onto the exit road. At this point I double check that we have our passports back, have all our original vehicle documents back and have our TIP or other papers. Do not be rushed and forget something.

Now I pay my helper, usually using my last bit of change from the country I have just departed from. We usually paid anywhere from $3 to $10. The response from the helpers was predictable. The vast majority of them took whatever I gave them and smiled and said a sincere thank you. A very few said it was not quite enough and could I give a bit more. Depending on how much I had given them and what they had done I might give a bit more from the currency of the new country- but only a bit. A very few took the notes I put into their hand stuffed them into their pockets without even looking and immediately asked for more. These I ignored. I thanked them and drove away.

In all cases our helpers really did help us get through quicker and with less hassle and using these methods I never had any issues with the helpers themselves.

]]>http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/african-border-crossings/feed/1412Cape Townhttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/cape-town/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/cape-town/#commentsMon, 18 Aug 2014 14:41:46 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=402We spent the last 10 days of our African Adventure enjoying Cape Town. What a wonderful and livable city. We were joined there by our friends Mike and Hester whom we had originally met on the road into the Serengeti in Tanzania, and had spent several days with since. Much of our efforts in CT […]

]]>We spent the last 10 days of our African Adventure enjoying Cape Town. What a wonderful and livable city. We were joined there by our friends Mike and Hester whom we had originally met on the road into the Serengeti in Tanzania, and had spent several days with since.

Much of our efforts in CT were spent in trying to sell our truck but in between times we visited the waterfront, Table Mountain, the tip of the Cape Peninsula near where the waters of the Indian Ocean meet the waters of the Atlantic. This is a major landmark for round the world sailors like ourselves, but on our circumnavigation we had braved the Red Sea and the Somali pirates and thus missed this iconic meeting of two of the world’s great oceans.

As anyone who knows Dee is aware she LOVES penguins- the number of stuffed penguin toys, penguin notepads, penguin bookends, aprons, t-shirts, etc she has received is beyond counting. So a visit to the Cape Penguin colony was a must. It did not disappoint as the look on De’s face in the photos below will attest.

The highlight of our CT visit however was when two of my gyroplane contacts whom I had only previously known via the internet offered to take us for a scenic flight. They pulled out all the stops with Dee going in one gyro and me in the other and we went for over an hour long flight all along the Cape coastline, down towards Table Bay, over the city and then to the scenic attractions of Camps Bay and Hout Bay. What a perfect way to end our trip.

Thanks Dave Lehr (LearJet) and Jean Tresfon for making the ending of our trip perfect.

We have just arrived back in the US but will be adding a few more posts to this blog in the coming weeks- specifically I will be adding some travel details geared towards those who are planning their own trips and want some nitty-gritty specifics to aid in their preparations. If that is you be sure to check back.

]]>http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/cape-town/feed/3402Rob did it again!http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/rob/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/rob/#commentsMon, 18 Aug 2014 14:21:42 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=398Rob did it again! He, with a lot of help from Jean and David two gyro friends, put the icing on the cake of my Africa adventures. At 4:30 pm Thursday with the skies clearing we were in the air in two Magni gyro planes. These are open cockpit tandem cockpit gyros of Italian design […]

]]>Rob did it again! He, with a lot of help from Jean and David two gyro friends, put the icing on the cake of my Africa adventures. At 4:30 pm Thursday with the skies clearing we were in the air in two Magni gyro planes. These are open cockpit tandem cockpit gyros of Italian design – sleek and very stable. We flew out to the coast, saw whales cavorting in the surf, went toward the city of Cape Town with Table Mountain and other peaks describing the far horizon. What a fantastic geographic setting – mountains, plains, sea and city! Flew low and slow over it all and headed back as the sun was setting – coming through the pass between Table Mountain and Lion’s Head. Added the finishing touch and another fantastic perspective on the adventures of Africa. Thank you, thank you all. dee

]]>http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/rob/feed/2398Namibia to Namaquahttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/namibia-namaqua/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/namibia-namaqua/#commentsFri, 01 Aug 2014 09:48:18 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=361 It is hard to imagine a greater contrast in landscape from the desert and sand dunes of Namibia last week to the flower strewn meadows of South Africa’s Namaqualand where we are now. With our Kiwi friends Brian and Sarah aboard we drove endless miles of parched white sandy desert in Namibia and now […]

It is hard to imagine a greater contrast in landscape from the desert and sand dunes of Namibia last week to the flower strewn meadows of South Africa’s Namaqualand where we are now. With our Kiwi friends Brian and Sarah aboard we drove endless miles of parched white sandy desert in Namibia and now we are camped in fields of blooming Namaqua daisies.

Crossing our first section of desert brought us to the forbidding Skeleton Coast, which lived up to its name on the day of our arrival. It was a bleak wintry scene with wild storm tossed ocean waves breaking over the discarded wreck of a stranded cargo ship. Farther along in Namibia we made a pre-sunrise climb to the top of a 1,200 meter sand dune in Sossusvlei and later proved our mettle by getting stuck once again in the sand- and getting unstuck on our own. More desert travels including two flat tires in one day brought us to Fish River Canyon- a mini version of the Grand Canyon. We tried a puncture repair but with minimal success then continued on with crossed fingers and no spare tires. The road ahead was the same section that had caused the two flats so it was with great relief that we finally reached a town just as our right rear tire sank into the pavement. Three new tires and $600 poorer we were on our way towards South Africa.

This section of South Africa is famous for its fields of daisies which usually bloom from mid August through September but we are in luck as they have bloomed early this year and we have timed it perfectly. How pleasant to again be driving through wonderful scenery and colorful meadows.

We have come nearly 20,000 kilometers and Cape Town, the end of our road is not far now.

]]>http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/namibia-namaqua/feed/3361Back into South Africahttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/back-south-africa/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/back-south-africa/#commentsThu, 31 Jul 2014 08:03:31 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=346OK, OK… I know I’ve been a real slacker on the blogging. Thing is we are doing so much and filling each day to the max that there just is not much time left for blogging and since we are camped out most every night we are not near cities with internet access. Anyway we […]

Thing is we are doing so much and filling each day to the max that there just is not much time left for blogging and since we are camped out most every night we are not near cities with internet access.

Anyway we are now back in South Africa — fully first world– actually after every place else we have been it does not even feel like Africa. Namibia was … interesting… basically a huge empty country. Miles and miles of gravel roads connecting places that in themselves are interesting but driving between them is looooong and booooring. Namibia is the perfect place for a 200 mph airplane.

The sand dunes at Sossvlei were awesome and the Skeleton coast was suitably mysterious and eerie. Pictures to come soon.

We had an awesome time traveling with our friends Brian and Sarah from New Zealand and did all of Namibia together.

]]>http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/back-south-africa/feed/2346Namibiahttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/namibia/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/namibia/#respondSun, 20 Jul 2014 15:43:41 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=341Namibia is a tremendous contrast to the other African countries we have visited. It is much more first world and is also very sparsely populated. Elsewhere in Africa there are people everywhere, walking on every road, standing at every road crossing, carrying water or firewood at any time of the day or night. In Namibia […]

Namibia is a tremendous contrast to the other African countries we have visited. It is much more first world and is also very sparsely populated. Elsewhere in Africa there are people everywhere, walking on every road, standing at every road crossing, carrying water or firewood at any time of the day or night. In Namibia the roads are virtually deserted, the towns are tidy paved enclaves and the German immigrants who originally settled here have made it a reflection of Europe. Our last few days have provided both a wonderful cultural experience and an immersion in the wildlife we came to see. The two animals we had yet to see before our visit to Etosha were cheetah and African wild dog and we saw both this week. We also visited a traditional village of the Himba people where the women never bathe after puberty and instead cover their bodies daily with red ochre paste and waft fragrant smoke over themselves. Their hair is covered in ochre and they wear intricate jewelry including leggings which are decorated according to how many kids they have. We were uncertain what sort of welcome we would get in the village but they were open to small numbers of visitors and glad for both the large sack of cornmeal we brought and the income our visit provided to the village.

]]>http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/namibia/feed/0341Zambia thoughtshttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/zambia-thoughts/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/zambia-thoughts/#commentsThu, 17 Jul 2014 13:57:26 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=329Zambia – a favorite. Friendly, helpful, open folks so well demonstrated by the large amount of “how can I help?” we received from everyone passing by in cars, on bikes or on foot when we had our truck breakdown on the rutted dirt road to Kapishya. Wide diversity from wilderness of north Luangwa to first […]

]]>Zambia – a favorite. Friendly, helpful, open folks so well demonstrated by the large amount of “how can I help?” we received from everyone passing by in cars, on bikes or on foot when we had our truck breakdown on the rutted dirt road to Kapishya. Wide diversity from wilderness of north Luangwa to first world Livingstone near Victoria Falls. I especially liked our two day drive leaving Buffalo Camp in North Luangwa National Park on to Mfuwe the entrance town for South Luangwa NP. We were on the road – dirt tracks – for at least six hours each day and only saw two other vehicles until we got to the tarred road outside Mufwe. Good encounters with locals along the way. Gave a lift to a guide going to his village for his days off. This was at the pontoon boat where we loaded the truck onto boards over floating oil cans and the strong operator pulled us across using a claw fashioned out of a tree root on the wire stretched across the river. Glad we had local knowledge since this was the one place we had trouble getting any info about possible passage. The guide was so pleased his mother could send a message ahead to the potential camp site and park gate operator that we were on our way. This out there telegraph system (infrequent cell phone service) twas back up for rescue in case we failed to show up. Stopped at one of the larger villages when the woman operating the pump caught our eyes. She was dressed in robin’s egg blue wrap skirt, green shirt and yellow head wrap and had an authoritative air about her. We found out she was the elected pump supervisor, an important village position. Kids were excited and when I suggested a song they treated me to “How I learned my ABCs” in another language! We shared some colored pens and then Rob brought out a soccer ball which was a big hit! Not many pass by and very few stop here. Along the way on the second day we started to see some bicyclists. One guy told us it was a three day ride to Mfuwe and he had only a spare jacket and woven straw mat tied on his bike. He gladly accepted a bottle of water and some crackers. Scenery was great – close woods, deep sands and occasional wild life. And that was just two days on the road between game viewing in national parks. Livingstone was a jump to first world. Lots of traffic, stores, etc. I liked my visit to the museum which had good coverage of the explorer/missionary David Livingstone and an in depth review of the politics(political shenanigans) of the country since independence in the 1950s. So much of Africa struggled with throwing off colonialism only to contend with tribal rivalries and vast corruption under their own rule. Experiencing Victoria Falls was a treat. Being there, walking along the wet path on the point of land parallel to the powerful falls must be experienced. Pictures give you just a small introduction to the majesty of it all. And then rafting on the Zambezi where the hike down to the river was an adventure in itself. It was over 1000 steps down a steep incline which had a ladder of sorts built out of tree branches. I took careful steps in my hiking boots sometimes getting an assist from Richard a local scampering down the side tree supports in bare feet! Those are just a few insights into this great adventure we are having. Travel on! Sent from my iPad

]]>http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/zambia-thoughts/feed/1329Trampled to Death by Elephants- well almosthttp://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/trampled-death-elephants-well-almost/
http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/trampled-death-elephants-well-almost/#commentsFri, 11 Jul 2014 13:56:38 +0000http://www.ventanasvoyage.com/africa/?p=323We’ve had a few interesting elephant encounters lately here in Botswana. Our adventures stared in Chobe National Park where we were staying in a riverside campground that is located on a lighted waterhole. In the evenings you can watch the elephants come to drink under the dim glow of a few orange floodlights. Sitting on […]

]]>We’ve had a few interesting elephant encounters lately here in Botswana. Our adventures stared in Chobe National Park where we were staying in a riverside campground that is located on a lighted waterhole. In the evenings you can watch the elephants come to drink under the dim glow of a few orange floodlights. Sitting on the camp’s veranda having a cold beer and watching a herd of 20 or more elephants only 40 meters away is a thrilling experience.

However it gets even better as the campground has dug an underground hide or blind only a few feet from the waterhole. The hide is mostly buried except for a two-foot high front wall that has small window slits cut in it for viewing and photography. There is only room for eight people at a time in the hide and it is entered via a 100-foot long underground and very dark tunnel.

Usually the elephants come to the waterhole from the forest on the far side but our second night camped there Dee was sitting alone in the hide when about a dozen elephants approached from right next to the hide giving her an excellent view of them from only 20 feet away.

Later that evening Rob was in the hide with five others when a second herd approached the water as usual from the far side opposite the hide. As the group began to drink one angry female continued to trumpet and chase away both the baboons and a few of the other elephants. She was easy to distinguish from the rest of the herd as she had only one tusk, the other likely broken off in fight.

At one point she chased a juvenile male across the waterhole and directly towards the hide. They stopped about 10 feet from us and both elephants suddenly smelled us and stopped their fight to probe with their trunks towards the open slits in the hide. As one trunk came within a foot of my window I leaned away and grabbed my camera. They continued sniffing but could not reconcile the human smell with the dirt-covered structure they were seeing. Eventually they returned to drinking and spraying themselves with water.

Seeing how close they had come I took stock of my bearings and checked out the construction of the underground room we were in. I could see the roof was concrete and there was a steel framework under that. On top was piled about 3 feet of dirt and the entire thing was lined with corrugated tin roofing. Being that this is Africa I wondered if anyone involved had considered engineering it to withstand the weight of an elephant. Doubtful.

Over the next half hour the angry female frequently trumpeted and often chased other elephants away from her. Then at one point she charged another elephant and chased him again right towards the hide- this time they were both running directly at us at full speed. Suddenly everyone in the hide was leaping backwards from the windows and several people fell off of the high viewing stools knocking them over in the process. The elephants both came right up to within a foot of our viewing windows then fortunately they decided the two foot high front wall was too high and they each made a high speed 90 degree turn running along the front of the hide with their toenails only inches from our noses as the female continued to chase the smaller male. In a second they were past us and out of view- the danger was over but it was certainly a bit too close for comfort.

Chobe South

Driving around the game reserves is a fascinating experience and we have come within feet of lions and leopard who do not view us a food as long as we stay inside our truck. The elephants are another matter though- the rangers routinely warn us that they are really the only animal that is a danger to you even inside your vehicle.

Yesterday we had a very long and difficult day of driving in deep sand all day. Even with four-wheel drive and our tire pressure lowered to 15 psi we had gotten stuck and been forced to dig ourselves out. Sometimes we might dig and dig only to move a few feet and get stuck again as the truck sunk up to the differential in the soft sand.

We were headed to an area outside the Park where we had been told we could camp near a village. It would be bush camping with no facilities nearby but were fine with that. The dirt track we were following was just two ruts with very tight turns twisting in and out around trees. Late afternoon sun was casting horizontal shadows across the road making it hard to see as we wound in and out alternating dark shadows and bright sunlight. We were only going a few miles an hour but as I rounded one tight bend Dee shouted, “STOP”. I slammed on the brakes even before I could see why she was shouting and by the time we skidded to a stop and I could see ahead an elephant was directly in the road and I was so close to him I could only see his legs and body. The top of the windshield cut off my view of his head and angry bellowing trunk.

I rammed the gearshift into reverse and floored it trying to use my side mirror to gauge the tight turn I had just come through and keep us on the road. I had almost made the turn when there was a crunch from the rear end as I bounced off the base of a tree which fortunately catapulted us back into the road. Now I looked ahead and could see the angry and startled elephant shaking his head, flapping his ears and stomping his feet which is the behavior they do just before they charge. I took a deep breath and carefully but quickly backed up another 50 feet then paused. He had not chased us so I got out to assess the damage. I could not see any bent metal so I concluded we had only hit the tree with our tire – how lucky. After waiting a few minutes to let the elephants feed and hopefully move on we continued another half mile to pitch camp under a huge Mopani tree. Time for a little Jack Daniels to settle the nerves.